California Cities Shutting Off Red Light Cameras

Good, I hate those things and I doubt they're constitutional given the requirement that a person accused be able to confront their accuser.  It's hard to confront a piece of electronics that automatically assesses violations.

In addition, while they may help prevent certain types of accidents caused by people running red lights, they also contribute to rear-end accidents caused by panic braking in order to avoid a violation.  All told, I'm not sure there's a safety advantage to having them.  They've basically been a moneymaker for the companies that install and service them (from California Watch):

While the state collects millions of dollars from red-light cameras at intersections, a few California cities are starting to question whether the safety benefits are worth the high cost to their own coffers.

Loma Linda is the latest city to drop their red-light camera program. "Ding dong, the witch is dead," Mayor Rhodes Rigsby told the Redlands Daily Facts after the city ended use of the cameras. Rhodes has been a vocal opponent of the program, calling on San Bernardino and Los Angeles to follow this lead.

Over the last five years, Loma Linda brought in around $200,000 from the project, the paper reported. But the bulk of the ticket fines went to the state or to Redflex, the Australia-based company that operates the cameras. "For that $200,000, we took $15 million out of the local economy" in ticket fines, the Daily Facts quoted Rigsby as saying.

Whittier shuttered its program in November, choosing not to renew its contract with Nestor Traffic Systems, citing no improvement in traffic safety and declining revenue, the Whittier Daily News reported.

Because of a state law passed in 2004, renewing the contract would have meant paying Nestor a flat fee instead of a percentage of each ticket – not a good deal for the city, Whittier interim Police Chief Jeff Piper told the Daily News.

Anaheim voters have also turned off their red-light cameras, voting in November to ban them and other automated systems. The measure passed by an overwhelming 73 percent.

“Anaheim’s voters recognized that red-light cameras are not a proven deterrent to traffic violations or traffic accidents, and I happen to agree with that assessment,” Mayor Curt Pringle told the L.A. Times.

Other cities have rejected automatic ticketing programs as well, including Union City near San Jose, Yucaipa and Costa Mesa, Cupertino, Compton, El Monte, Fairfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Indian Wells, Irvine, Maywood, Montclair, Moreno Valley, Paramount, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Roseville, San Carlos, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa and Upland.

You could probably accomplish the same safety improvements by simply installing a sign that says photo enforcement MAY occur. Keep the drivers guessing and they probably won't dare run the light.